A study in black and white: Confederate dead of Franklin

Frank Gray, 21, and his uncle, John Russell, are buried side by side. Both served with the 6th Arkansas. 
(CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

A row of 15 unknown dead from Mississippi, which has 424 soldiers buried in the cemetery, 
by far the most from any state.

Like this blog on Facebook
It's 6:38 a.m. in McGavock Cemetery, and Franklin, Tenn., begins to stir below gloomy skies. Just outside the black cemetery gate, joggers and walkers emerge from cars and an elderly man in a light-blue shirt and dark-blue slacks loudly chats on a phone. Birds announce their presence while a lone visitor slowly walks along the gravel path in the cemetery, where nearly 1,300 Confederate dead from the Battle of Franklin rest underneath ground covered thickly with dew.

Sergeant Major Charles Napoleon Batchelor Street, 33rd Mississippi, 20 or 21 when he died.

"A.M.N." .... and the marker for an unknown peeking through the grass.

Captain L.R. Townsend, 4th Mississippi, killed Nov. 30, 1864. He was 32.

One of the 558 unknowns buried at McGavock Confederate Cemetery.

The Missouri section, where 130 soldiers sleep for eternity.

Stones left by the grave of Lieutenant Thomas Benton Moncrief, 2nd Arkansas, 23 or 24 when he died.

A marker for the dead of Georgia, one of 10 Confederate states represented in the cemetery.

An aide to General Edward Walthall, Hobson Powell was mortally wounded at Franklin. His "courage 
and accomplishments had endeared him to my whole command," Walthall wrote of the Mississippian.

Monument for 51 dead from South Carolina.

16-year-old James Wilson Winn of the 25th Georgia rests with his comrades. His parents traveled 
from Georgia to place the ornate marker atop their son's grave.

His descendants remember: Two markers for Captain John Bryan Allen of the 29th Alabama.

A marker for unknowns rises to the heavens.

---

-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.